Ex-ISI men trained Mumbai attackers; claims US report

ET BureauDec 5, 2008, 12.54am IST

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's efforts to maintain the fiction of denial — terror groups are run by non-state actors and these outfits operated without its support — may not work as evidences are piling up about involvement of former ISI officials in the Mumbai bombings.

Reports from Washington quoting a former US defence department official said former Pakistani army officials trained the terrorists who went on rampage in Mumbai. "A former defence department official said on Wednesday that American intelligence agencies had determined that former officers from Pakistan's army and its powerful ISI helped train the Mumbai attackers," The New York Times said.

This supports the Indian finding that the attack was planned by Lashkar-e-Toiba with the help of officials of the "semi rogue" ISI. According to the investigators here, Lashkar leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman and Yusuf Muzammil were among the masterminds of the attack. Police have claimed that they have details of phone conversations between the bombers and Muzammil.

The arrested bomber Ajmal Qasab has confessed to the police that he spent a year and a half in various terror camps run by the Lashkar. Qasab also told his interrogators that he had met Lashkar leader Mohammad Hafeez Sayeed. The Mumbai police chief had told reporters on Wednesday that Kasab came from Faridkot in Punjab province of Pakistan. One of the camps he attended was in Muzaffarabad where Jamaat-ud-Dawa — the public face of Lashkar after its ban — did relief work after the 2005 earthquake.

Pakistan has so far refuted Indian allegations, supported by the US, of having harbored these terrorists, several of whom were foreign nationals, and claimed that they are "non-state actors".

Meanwhile, picking holes in President Asif Ali Zardari's claim that the Mumbai terror strike was executed by "non-state

actors", a veteran CIA analyst said that Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba(LeT) blamed for the unprecedented attack has links with Pakistan's inter services intelligence (ISI).

"If there's is a 64-million-dollar-question today," it is about finding out the "extent of its (LeT) ties with the ISI," said Bruce Riedel at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on "Mumbai terrorist attacks: A challenge for India and the world".

Contesting the Pakistani government's denials about links between its intelligence agency and LeT, Riedel said it is difficult to believe the Pakistani government's assertions, "given the size of its (LeT) activities in Pakistan."

The Mumbai terror plot was carried out by "professionals, who were trained by professionals and given a professional plan", Riedel said, adding there was considerable planning over a protracted period of time and the attacks "were not a plot by amateurs or a pick-up group."

Riedel's assessment on the involvement of "professionals" reinforced the assertion by Mumbai police that ex-army professionals trained the terrorists involved in last week's terror attack that claimed nearly 200 lives.

The New York Times in a report quoted unnamed Pentagon officials as saying that retired and/or former Pakistani military officials trained the LeT cadres who carried out the Mumbai attack.

"This was an extraordinarily sophisticated and complex plot that had numerous moving parts and was executed with — one has to admit — a tremendous amount of skill by very well trained terrorists," Riedel said.

The Mumbai attack is the most significant terrorist incident since 9/11 and in many ways, was akin to 9/11 "in training and execution," he added.

Riedel, a foreign policy adviser to the US President-elect Barrack Obama's during his election campaign, is certain that the Mumbai attackers were strongly influenced by the ideology and narrative of Al Qaeda.

The attacks demonstrate that the ideology and narrative of Al Qaeda and the global jihad movement continues to inspire deadly terrorism and remains a formidable threat today, he said.

The Mumbai carnage will be remembered as a seminal event in the history of international terrorism and particularly global 'jihad', he added.

The Mumbai massacre succeeded brilliantly in terrorism's first goal of garnering attention and inspiring fear, as millions of people throughout the world tracked the unfolding developments on their television sets.

As investigations proceed, "We should consider the possibility that terrorists could deliberately mislead to throw investigators off the real scent." Riedel concluded.